Sugar Cane-to-Jet Fuel Pathway Analyzed for Sustainability

Brazil, August 9, 2011

Two publicly traded aircraft manufacturers and the Inter-American Development Bank
will jointly fund a sustainability analysis of renewable jet fuel sourced from Brazilian sugar cane.

Last month, the bank announced a regional cooperation grant to help public and private
institutions develop a sustainable biojet  fuels industry. The Amyris study is the first to be financed under that grant.

Shouldering the funding with the bank are The Boeing Company and Embraer S.A., the world's largest manufacturer of commercial jets up to 120 seats.

For the first time, the study will evaluate environmental and market conditions associated with the use of renewable jet fuel produced by Amyris Brasil S.A., a majority-owned Brazilian company, a subsidiary of California-based Amyris.

Amyris is a renewable products company that uses its industrial synthetic biology technology to convert plant sugars into a variety of hydrocarbon molecules that can provide sustainable alternatives to petroleum-sourced products.

The global conservation organization World Wildlife Fund will serve as an independent reviewer and advisor for the analysis.

"Emerging renewable jet fuel technologies have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly, as sugarcane ethanol in Brazil has already proven," said Arnaldo Vieira de Carvalho, leader of the IDB Sustainable Aviation Biofuels Initiative.

"This study will examine the overall potential for sustainable, large-scale production of alternative jet fuels made from sugarcane," he said. In 2010, the U.S. EPA designated Brazilian sugarcane ethanol as an advanced biofuel due to its 61 percent reduction of total life cycle greenhouse gas
emissions, including direct and indirect land use change emissions.

The jet fuel study will be led by ICONE, a research think-tank in Brazil with extensive experience in agriculture and biofuels analysis, and reviewed by WWF.

"Climate change is threatening biodiversity and the critical habitats of some the world's most iconic species," said Kevin Ogorzalek, program officer at World Wildlife Fund. "As renewable jet fuel production increases, it must be done in a transparent and sustainable way."

"We're eager to contribute to this study as one part of a growing international effort to reduce the fast-growing emissions from aviation and protect the critical resources on which we all depend," Ogorzalek said.